


Animals: A Field Guide for the Amateur Zoologist

by Losille



Category: Actor RPF, British Actor RPF
Genre: F/M, Gen, PWP, Romance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-02-04
Updated: 2015-02-04
Packaged: 2018-03-10 11:06:36
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 735
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3288011
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Losille/pseuds/Losille
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Elizabeth “Libby” Haley’s one true passion is elephants. She’s dedicated her life to researching and conserving these gentle giants while enjoying the peace that comes from a simple life in the middle of nowhere with her small research team. A few times a year, however, her quiet Botswanian savannah becomes a hub of activity between elephants and rich tourists (who have absolutely no idea how to survive in the wilds) migrating back with the end of the wet season. She barely endures the safari groups, understanding the symbiotic relationship between elephant safari tourism and her relevance studying the animals, but this season and one tourist in particular could prove to be a little more than she can handle… especially when she must rescue said tourist after he meets an unfriendly lion on a morning jog.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Animals: A Field Guide for the Amateur Zoologist

**Author's Note:**

> DVM= Doctor of Veterinary Medicine (US). I know I said I wouldn’t start another one of these until I finished an open fic, but I couldn’t let this one go. This is merely a small “prologue”. Chapter 1 to come soon.

****

 

**PREFACE**

Dear Reader:

If you are familiar with field guides in any sense of word, I am very sorry to disappoint you at this very early stage in the game. This book is not a typical field guide in the sense that it identifies multiple animals and objects by brief physical description, accompanying pictures, and other pertinent species information. This guide is of a different sort, set to focus on the habits of just one creature—me, the researcher.

I know what you’re thinking—have I gone and jumped the shark? Well, perhaps I have, but in my defense, I was only going through my old field notes sometime last year while preparing an article for publication.  I came across one specific journal I hadn’t seen in two decades and gave it a quick read through. Upon sharing it with family and friends, and seeing their resulting reactions, I knew the story had to be told somehow.  I wrangled a friend (who is far better with words than me) as a ghost writer and we set off on the magical quest of writing my first non-research publication, the fruits of which you now hold in your hands.

The specific journal in question details a point in my life where everything was changing for me.  I was concluding a ten-year long research expedition in Botswana and turning forty.  The Botswanian government, despite their typically harsh treatment of trophy hunters and poachers, had become lax in their duties in order to cull the rising elephant population.  It severely endangered my work, among other things. Life was in flux. I couldn’t stop it. The stress made me cranky and the tourists made it even worse that year, especially when one specific group of men rented out the camp nearest our research station (20 miles away give or take, as the crow flies) in the northwestern Okavango Delta for a fourteen day bachelor party.

Now, if you are a man, I do beg your indulgence with the following assertions, but as a woman of a certain age who has studied animal behavior all her life, I feel that I have some credibility on the subject, no matter how divisive it may seem. To put it simply: Males of any species, but particularly male Homo sapiens sapiens, are foolish at the best of times. Placed in a large group with no female regulation, they are downright idiots. This stag party proved the rule true—at least until someone with a brain dealt with one of the major instigators.

My trusty journal saw the worst of my frustrations as I veered away from strictly recording my research notes. However, I realize now that I completed a different kind of research. It wasn’t the purely scientific kind that went into one of my papers or presentations to international conservation bodies. Rather, it was a look into who _I_ was as a person at the beginning of my fortieth year. I never really stopped to think much about myself back then; I was so driven to succeed in my career, I never took the time to reflect on life as I do now. I certainly never recognized the change that occurred over that African winter in 2016. It happened so suddenly and then so slowly that everything jumbled up and I didn’t see what a truly different person it made me when I came out on the other side of it all. Funny, isn’t it, that I wouldn’t look at these notes and actually _see_ myself until twenty years later?

This field guide is, at its core, a look at the _zoologist_ in her natural habitat—the animal behind the animals—and how outside forces acted upon her safe little world to change everything. I beg your indulgence with this experiment; my goal is to make it as informative as possible, without making it too laborious to read.

It’s my sincerest hope, if you’ve picked up this book as you are starting out your own career in zoology, that you might find some humor or some piece of yourself within the words on these pages. If there is anything about my experiences that I’ve learned in hindsight, it’s that we all have to keep an open mind to new discoveries. Not doing so will always do more harm than good.

Right?

I suppose we’ll find out together.

Happy reading,

Elizabeth Haley, DVM, PhD


End file.
